Ferodo Harness Science and Stopping Power
Page 59
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AREMARKABLE combination of research facilities will go into action at Ferodo, Ltd., Chapel-enle-Frith, following the formal opening of the company's research laboratories by the Duke of Edinburgh this morning.
The new establishment, which cost Ferodo, Ltd., £750,000 to construct, now houses under one roof all the facilities of the research division. Situated close by the main production plant, the premises are built in the form of a slightly splayed letter E, with its " wings " at the rear, and may be regarded as consisting of four segments.
In the front centre is the administrative section, together with conference rooms, library and drawing office. The entire northern wing is occupied by the experimental production laboratory and that on the south by the test house, test garage and workshops.
The central wing provides for the needs of the physical and chemical laboratories. The frontage, which constitutes the base of the " E," faces the main road from Chapel-en-le-Frith to Glossop.
Materials Research
The activities of the research division fall into four main sections, the first of which is fundamental research into fric tion and raw materials. The others comprise the development and improvement of brake facings, the testing of friction materials on special machines as well as on road vehicles, and the evolution of efficient and economic methods of friction-material production.
In one section of the organization teams of scientists are engaged in the study of braking problems arising from a variety of different conditions. Other groups are studying the properties of raw materials, such as asbestos, or are engaged in an endeavour to unravel the problem of what friction really is. Much development work is devoted to sintered metals and cerametallies which are being called into increasing use for monster carthrnoving equipment.
When a new facing is to be originated, a specification of the requirements must be drawn up. taking into consideration such factors as the friction level, mating surfaces, the braking system and the speeds and temperatures involved. A number of samples will be produced, in some there being a variation in the proportion of raw materials and in others a variation in the processing. Frictional and other physical tests are then undertaken to reveal the weaknesses and advantages of each specimen.
After an experimental facing has been produced. lengthy trials will take place in the Ferodo testhouse, which has machines that closely simulate the requirements of buses. lorries and ears in the matter of facing performance. After having stood up successfully to the severe conditions imposed by the test house trials, a facing will be run for great mileages on a unit of the Ferodo roadtest fleet.
The vehicles employed represent all forms of private and commercial use, and each makes a daily circuit in the Peak district, or on the neighbouring Cheshire plain, every route being designed to reproduce typical operating conditions. The fully loaded heavy vehicles travel 100 miles a day throughout the week.
In addition to constant personal observation by the test drivers, thc facings are subjected to numerous carefully calculated tests, AU the vehicles are fitted with instruments which make them in effect mobile laboratories. Some record braking pressures and others the decelerations during the brake tests; electrical devices register facing temperatures arid the number and duration of the applications.
As facing wear on road passenger vehicles is basically different from that encountered in other spheres, a spetial unit is employed for the examination of such problems. A special single-deck body has been built on a double-decker chassis and this machine can be weighted in such a way as to reproduce the effect of a full double-deck passenger load.
There are trap doors in the floor to facilitate the inspection of the brakes and braking system, and to permit the fitting of thermo-couples. Embedded in the facings under test, the thermo-couples are connected with a bank of thermo-couple meters conveniently placed for reading by an observer in the passenger compartment.
Among the other instruments fitted are pendulum and U-tube decelerometers, an air-line pressure gauge and an electronic device, called the ghost conductor, for controlling the cycle of halts.
Timed Stopping
When on a "town run" test, the ghost conductor signals the driver to stop. When this has been done, and time allowed for the supposed passengers to board or alight, the bell is sounded again and the vehicle continues on its way.
The, buzzer will sound again f min.
or m. later and the sequence will continue. -The device records the number of times the brakes have been applied, the period for which they have been applied, and the total stopping time.
After a new product has been passed out as satisfactory in every respect, the laboratory techniques have to be translated into production processes. In the experimental production laboratory already mentioned more than 100 machines are employed, including standard equipment and prototypes. Here methods are evolved for producing the new material under factory conditions and in as economical and efficient a manner as possible.